Are You Quick Enough To Be Dead?
by CiceroGuided
Summary: [The Quick and the Dead] After they burned his mission Herod gave him a choice, Fight or Die. He had chosen death. They had made him fight. They had forced him to fight because Herod knew he was fast. But Cort doesn’t want to be fast. All Cort wants is...
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Are You Quick Enough To Be Dead?**

**Summary: The Quick and the Dead After they burned his mission Herod gave him a choice, Fight or Die. He had chosen death. They had made him fight. They had forced him to fight because Herod knew he was fast. But Cort doesn't want to be fast. All Cort wants…is to die.**

**Disclaimer: I own no characters from the movie, The Quick and the Dead.**

**A/N: Okay, this is gonna be a little weird because I've never written a western before. So take it easy on me and no flames!**

**Most of this story will be in Ellen's point of view. I'll let you know when it's someone else's.**

**Losing Redemption**

Ellen stared across the dry Nevadan Desert thinking about what she had left behind her years ago. That little town that had needed her help so desperately. Needed her? The blonde smiled to herself. No, not her. Just some gun savvy hombre to take on Herod. She had been gun savvy, and in the end she had been the one to put the evil outlaw in the ground. But she wasn't the only one who could have done it.

Cort could have done it.

Her smile faded. He had offered, more like demanded, to take on Herod himself. But she hadn't let him because of her father. The other reason she wouldn't let him was because she knew what killing did to his kind.

It gave them a thirst for the kill.

Ellen knew how much killing a man affected your average gun fighter. Once they got a taste for it, they never stopped.

Elle also knew how it affected Cort. He had tried so hard to put violence behind him. And to go on living like a good man. A preacher of the Lord's good word. Being a 'holy' man of sorts made it worse for him. He felt that he had failed, in almost every way possible to keep the holy laws that his God had set down for him, and it tore him up inside, to kill other men in battle.

How did she know? How did she know so much about this reformed outlaw and gun slinger? He had told her as much as he could during the one night they had shared. She had listened. Wanting to help this poor man to go on living after all the death and destruction that had followed him everywhere he went.

He was a good man. He had been deceived in his youth, but he had learned his error. He had repented of it as best as he could. He was a good man with good morals. He helped those who needed it. Like her. Ellen would never be able to thank him enough for the help he had given her in defeating Herod. She had done her best to thank Cort, she had tossed him the badge. Given him a new life to look forward to.

She grinned and turned her horse east, toward Arizona, and Redemption.

It was time to visit and old friend.

As she rode in she immediately noticed the new jail and Marshall building. Ellen blinked back a few tears as old memories of what had gone on outside of the last Marshall Building the town had.

Shaking her head, she rode past the new clapboard building and pulled up next to the newly rebuilt Pigeon's Nest, now called Silk Mats. Ellen smirked at the name. It looked like the Kid's widow had found her self a new calling **(Remember? The lady the Kid got married to was named Mattie Silk?). **Tying her mount to a hitching post she clinked her way into the new Saloon next door.

Little Katie, not so little now, stood behind the bar serving a drinks to a couple cowboys as her father refilled a platter of peanuts for the gamblers.

Katie looked up from what she was doing when Ellen's shadow fell across the bar. The young woman beamed and hurried over to the gun packing blonde.

"Oh Lady! I knew you'd come back sometime!" She grasped Ellen's hands and drew her to a corner table. "The whole town's been a missin' you."

The older woman allowed herself a slight smile before answering. "Is that so?"

"Oh yes," Katie nodded vigorously along with her statements. "It was such a wonderful thing you done for us, we couldn't help but miss ya'." The slender woman sighed and dropped into the seat next to her hero. "Actually Miss, we was hoping you'd give the Marshal a hand. He ain't doing so well against the drifters."

Ellen lifted and eyebrow at that. Cort having trouble? "What is he doing? Trying to preach them into jail?"

The Owner's daughter looked confused for a moment then her face lit up. "Oh miss, I'd forgotten. You ain't been here in so long and-"Seeing the impatient look on the older woman's face she hurried on. "Cort ain't the Marshal no more. He only took the job till the town got back on its feet, and then he left. It's Jimmy Moonlight who's Marshal now."

Katie gave a quick glance around before whispering to Ellen, "Lady, he just ain't got the salt for the job! He's too much like his Pa to stand up to the one that talk big. That's why we need you, somebody's just got to clean the town of all the bad 'uns and appoint a new Marshal. Old Doc Wallace tried to find a new Marshal, but nobody'd listen to him."

"Is that so?" The other woman commented dryly. "Well get me a room and I'll see what I can do."

The brunette leaped to her feet and was scurrying toward the back door when Ellen caught hold of the girl's left hand. Raising it to the light, a small silver ring with a ruby chip on it glittered on her third finger.

Katie flushed. "Me and Arnold- you remember Arnold don't you? He used to shine shoes and stuff outside the Saloon."

"You mean the blind boy?"

"Yes, we got hitched last month."

Ellen dropped her hand and followed the girl outside. "You're father let you marry him? He hasn't got a job that could support him, much less a woman."

Katie's face clouded over. "He was the only one that's take me after-"

A sympathetic look passed over the older woman's face and she patted the girl on the shoulder. "I understand."

Katie shrugged it off. "Anyways, Pa lets us have a room and Arnold helps him wash up the tables and things after hours. He also got a part-time job over at the Livery feeding the horses, so we do alright. Here you go, you can stay in this room as long as you like."

Ellen entered the small room and started unpacking her stuff. She needed to talk to the Doctor as soon as possible.

Old Doc Wallace was getting too old to keep his practice. He knew that before too long he'd have to give it up to some young 'un who thinks he knows something about medicine.

The Doc had looked at the credentials of several such men looking for his job and had only found one likely candidate. That young man was moved into one of the side room's in Wallace's house and was to be present at every medical encounter so as to learn what he would need to know.

When Ellen called, Wallace and his 'apprentice' were in the operating room pulling a slug out of a man's back. She slipped quietly into the room and took a seat next to a window. She settled herself in for a wait.

After the wounded man had left, escorted by the assistant, Ellen came up to her old friend and gave him a hug.

"It's great to see you doc. How's life been here on your end?"

The old gentleman sighed and led her into the kitchen. "Not so good I'm afraid. After Cort left everything went downhill again. The only thing different in this town from the way it was five years ago is the fact all the buildings are new."

She accepted the cup of tea from him and blew on it. "Who took Herod's place then?"

Wallace shook his head. "You wouldn't know him. Some cattle lord from Texas someplace moved in here sometime last year and took over. He's more of the law around here than our recent Marshal is."

"Why'd Cort leave? He didn't strike me as the kind of man to leave a town in a lurch."

"Oh we were doing just fine when he left. Everything had been rebuilt, plus a few new places and all the bums had jobs, so no worries in that department. In the two years Cort was Marshal he gained this little dung heap a reputation for not putting up with any nonsense. But it wasn't more than two months after he'd left that the riffraff moved back in."

Ellen looked amused at the old doctor's referring to the town as dung heap. "That's all fascinating but why'd he go? Even after the town was fixed up it'd still need a lot of help before these people would be able to stand on their own."

Wallace took a swallow from his own cup of tea before responding. "Ellen you should know the answer to that question. You knew him better than any of us. He left because of bad memories. And because a man like that doesn't settle down someplace for good unless he's got a wife to keep him there."

"Do you know where he went?"

"No. He didn't say anything but that he had to leave. Although…"

She looked at him expectantly as the Doctor trailed off. "What?"

"He did mention something about getting some land around Wyoming, but I can't remember where exactly he said. Why are you so interested in his where abouts?"

She shrugged. "Just wondering. Like I said, he didn't strike me as the kind of man to just get up and leave without a serious reason."

Wallace just gave her a knowing smile.

Ellen woke in the middle of the night to gun fire. Leaping off the bed she pulled on her breeches and buckled on her gun belt, snatching her hat off the post on her way out. The sight that met her eyes was terrible.

The whole north end of town was on fire. All the houses, stores and saloons on that end of Main Street were going up in flames. The silhouettes of riders and people scurrying across the dusty land flitted across her vision.

She cursed and ducked back inside. Hastily she stuffed all her things back into her saddlebags and pulled on her coat.

Dashing back out she ran for the stables and her horse. She tied her pack onto the saddle, Leaping onto the horse's back as her mount cantered out of the barn. She turned the horse toward Wallace's house and kicked it into a gallop.

When the huge beast tore past a saloon on their way, Ellen suddenly remembered Katie. Cursing once again she swung the horse around only to have her way blocked by a wagon.

Doc Wallace, Katie and her family gaped at the gun slinging Lady and it took an explosion knocked them from their reverie.

Katie gasped. "C'mon Lady! We've gotta get, and fast!"

Ellen shook her head, "But the town-"

Wallace stopped her cold with his next words. "Don't. Redemption was lost the day your father died Ellen. Don't waste your time trying to save it now."

**Well? What do you think? Does it have promise? Can I safely proceed with the next chapter?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Are You Quick Enough To Be Dead?**

**Summary: The Quick and the Dead After they burned his mission Herod gave him a choice, Fight or Die. He had chosen death. They had made him fight. They had forced him to fight because Herod knew he was fast. But Cort doesn't want to be fast. All Cort wants…is to die.**

**Disclaimer: I own no characters from the movie, The Quick and the Dead.**

**A/N: Grumpirah this chapter has been dedicated to you, because you were my first reviewer.**

**And I must ask…What's up with all the Miracle fics? If there where any more of them they could stop calling this section the 'Miscellaneous Movies' and start calling it 'Miracle.' What we need is more Gothika fics (and no fem slash either. Some Miranda and Pete, or something), Howl's Moving Castle…and of course, The Quick and the Dead.**

**The Wind and the Wire**

Ellen stared at the barbed wire fence that stood solidly in front of her. It was a drift fence, and a fairly new one by the looks of the wire. She shook her head. She had just been through this area but a month ago and there had been no fence then. More and more restrictions upon the land.

Sitting high in the saddle she cantered back to her friends. The small wagon was silhouetted against the cold grey evening sky when she rode in and Katie was trying to get a fire going.

The Doc looked up at her, "What is it?"

She simply shook her head and un-cinched the saddle. Pulling a piece of rope out of her saddle bags she hobbled the horse's feet before finishing un-tacking. She dumped the heavy hunk of tooled leather on the ground next to the wagon and unrolled her bed roll.

Arnold handed her the pump action Winchester he had been cleaning and moved to help his wife fix the evening meal. Katie was pealing a few potatoes that she had thrown in a sack at the last minute before they had left the other night. She looked close to tears, but was trying hard not show it.

Ellen glanced at Wallace and he was watching the young woman as closely as she was. When the gun slinger looked back over at the fire, Katie suddenly emitted a sob. Pushing the knife and potato onto Arnolds hands, the brunette turned as dashed off into the darkening grass that surrounded the camp.

The doctor made as if to go after her, but Arnold stopped him. "Give her a minute or two. She's worried about her Pa."

A frown creased Wallace's brow. "What if she gets lost?"

Ellen sighed and rose from her blanket. "I'll keep and eye out for her, Doc. You stay here and help the kid with dinner."

The Blonde woman took the Winchester with her and strode out into the edge of grass in the direction Katie had taken. Squinting her eyes in the dim lighting she peered out into the coming night. The slim figure of her friend was no where to be seen. Frowning, Ellen rotated slightly on the spot, scanning the horizon for a sign. But Katie was no where in sight.

Scowling, she walked farther out, still searching for a glimpse of Katie. Tightening her grip on the rifle Ellen strode out farther still gleaning through the waves of grass for her married friend.

A sharp crack caused her to drop to the ground. Eyes wide and body tensed for battle, Ellen looked around in sharp jerks of her head. She was searching for the source of such an odd sound. It hadn't sounded much like gun fire, but one could never be too careful. After a few quick breaths, she tried to pin point the direction the noise had come in.

A female scream resonating from her right suddenly galvanized her into action. She had forgotten about Katie in her haste to discover what the sound was! Now she realized it had been the crack of a horse whip. Cursing she leaped to her feet and tore back into the makeshift camp.

Wallace and Arnold had hard Katie's cry and were staring anxiously out into the evening gloom. The doctor stepped forward when his former charge came into the camp only to leap back again as she hurried past him.

Ellen pulled a bowie knife from her belt and slashed the hobbles on her horse. Not bothering to saddle him, she leapt on bareback. Suddenly pausing she threw the rifle at Wallace.

Then she spurred the huge beast into a gallop and tore out of the camp only slightly faster than she had run into it.

Once away from the fire light she drew her pistol and drew the horse up to a walk. It wouldn't do to alert who ever it was who had Katie before she was in range. Her mount was a hammer headed buckskin mustang that could out run anything in the west with legs, so she wasn't duly concerned with losing her prey after she had found it. Her problem, was finding them in the first place.

Keeping the horse in check, she slowly rode in the direction that she had heard the scream in. As they mounted a hill Ellen heard another crack this time from almost directly in front of her. Not waiting another second she kicked the mustang forward and over the hill top.

As they charged down the other side Ellen had her gun ready to fire, but when she was over the hill she realized she didn't have anything to fire at. There was nothing at the bottom of the rise in the land. Nothing but grass. No people or horses and most importantly, no Katie.

She let out another curse and stared about herself, looking for a sign. But, again, there was nothing. "How can anyone just disappear like this?" She muttered bad temperly under her breath.

She was just turning to ride back to her friends when she noticed the silhouette of a horse and rider appear on the hill top across from her. Smiling grimly she praised her luck as she sent her mount towards the lone figure. Maybe this person knew what was going on.

Half way to the mysterious form on the ridge Ellen heard the crack once again and stared in shock as a stage couch suddenly appeared out of the blackness in front of her. The sturdy mustang beneath her snorted in shock but didn't bolt as the huge enclosed wagon rushed by within feet of them.

Ellen gaped at it. There was no way she had missed something that big on her way down here. No possible way, but there it was none the less. She gaped even more as Katie's horrified face flashed in one of the stagecoach windows.

The slender cowgirl let out a strangled yell and spurred her horse after the speeding carriage.

Out of the darkness had come more that just a stage coach. Ellen had been so wrapped up in saving Katie that she didn't notice the other riders until they were right upon her. She saw the first one out of the corner of her eye and stiffened when she saw the gun in his hand. Taking a deep breath she decided to ignore him for the moment and focus on Katie, after all, if he had wanted her dead he would have shot her by now.

Or so she thought. But as soon as the mustang had brought her along side the Stagecoach they started firing. Gritting her teeth she drew her own gun and fired behind her blindly. One shot. Two shots.

She nearly dropped her weapon in pain as a bullet grazed her left side. Gasping she pulled away, knowing that she couldn't fight with her enemies behind her waiting to shoot her in the back. When she had fallen back far enough she took aim and resumed her assault. She got one of the riders between the shoulder blades and he toppled from his horse.

She had taken a bead on her next target when the stagecoach door swung open. To Ellen's shock and dismay, Katie was forced to climb up the outside of the moving Coach and onto the roof. She was followed closely behind by a large man. When the two of them were safely perched among the baggage, the man pulled a gun and put it to the young woman's head. With his other hand he gestured for Ellen to stop.

Blinking against tears, the blonde did as ordered. For the next half hour she stared out across the distance in the direction her young companion had vanished into. Anger boiled up in her as she glared into the surrounding darkness. By the time Wallace and Arnold drew up beside her, angry and foul epitaphs were spewing from her mouth like water.

Wallace waited until she had to pause and take a breath to speak. "We passed a dead man back there." He then gestured behind him and Ellen noticed the Pinto tied to the wagon. "That horse was grazing around him. Figured the two went together, but since a dead body is no good to us we just took the animal. You couldn't find Katie?"

Ellen sighed. "Nothing we can do for Katie right now Doc. Ya'll go on ahead a ways. You'll come to a drift fence, camp there and I'll catch up with you in a bit."

The old man nodded and clucked to his horses. They set off for the drift fence while the gun slinger turned back for the man she had shot.

He was lying flat out on his back and Ellen figured the doctor had turned him over to get a better look. The moon was out now and she could just make out his features in the gloom. Getting down off the mustang, she crouched next to the unfortunate man and rifled through his pockets, looking for some kind of identification.

In his left breast pocket he had a pouch of tobacco and some paper for smokes, but his other pockets were empty. Ellen smiled grimly as she stripped him of his gun belt and weapons. He wouldn't be kidnapping any little girls anytime soon.

After wrapping his things in a 'kerchief she stuffed them in a saddle bag. Ellen turned back to the body with a groan. Now came the rather unpleasant part, getting him back to the others. Gritting her teeth and straining her muscles, she hauled the dead weight upright and over her saddle. Swinging up behind him she winced as the head thunked against her leg.

The stench of decay was just starting to rise from the dead flesh when Ellen dumped the body next to the pinto. The horse snorted and shied away from his now dead master.

The slender woman ignored her companions and their questions as she un-tacked her own horse and unrolled her blankets. Pulling off her boots and setting her gun next to the make shift bed she bid the men good night and went to sleep.

**Now what will happen? I wonder….**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter.**

**Dannie**


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: Are You Quick Enough To Be Dead?**

**Summary: The Quick and the Dead After they burned his mission Herod gave him a choice, Fight or Die. He had chosen death. They had made him fight. They had forced him to fight because Herod knew he was fast. But Cort doesn't want to be fast. All Cort wants…is to die.**

**Disclaimer: I own no characters from the movie, The Quick and the Dead. And the town & people names I mention may or may not be real people or Towns. **

**A/N Oh my goodness! It has been so long since I've updated! I am so sorry! I have good excuses though! Lol. First I had writers block and then the hard drive on my pc broke. So I lost everything I've ever written. Including a chapter I was almost finished with for this story. And then….I forgot about the story…. And my iPod broke…..Ah well. What's done is done.**

**I'm afraid this chapter will be short, I'm pressed for time at the moment. Hopefully the next chapter I get out to ya'll will be longer.**

_**Ridin' On**_

Ellen sat back on her heels and stared grimly out into the horizon. Earlier that morning she had strapped the dead man to his horse. The horse had bolted after she had given it a slap on the rump, but after galloping a few miles it slowed to a walk. She had been tracking it all day. When it first lit out she thought it was headed north-west, to Pheonix. But now the trail petered out in virtually the opposite direction, to Cartersville, a small silver town on the border.

She had sent Doc Wallace and Arnold east, to the nearest town to purchase supplies. From there they would go to Gallup in New Mexico and wait for her there. Ellen had loitered at the camp for a few hours, solidifying her plans, before tacking up and heading after the corpse bearing horse.

Removing the hat from her head, she wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. After slapping it on her thigh to remove some of the dust, she put it back on. It was gonna be a long hard ride before this was over and the girl was found.

…………

In southern Arizona there is an outfit. The Hardesty Clemmins outfit to be exact. This band is composed of what's supposed to be the hardest, meanest, and most ruthless men in all Arizona. They rob trains, stages, banks, and have burned whole towns to the ground in the process. They've run off cattle, men and Indians off land they want. Anything they see that suits their fancy they take. That includes horses, women, whiskey and range. Their base of operations has never been found, and perhaps that's why they've never been stopped. Rumor had they shacked up south of the border when they weren't raiding, and the Mexican government never did anything about them 'cause they brought good business and U.S. Gold down with 'em.

The gang was said to have more than fifty members. And their leader, Mr. Clemmins himself, was said to have killed more than that many people, two of them Texas Rangers. Originally Clemmins was a wheat farmer in Kansas, he had a pretty little farm, a wife, two sons and a daughter. He went a little crazy after his family all died of Scarlet Fever. He took and axe and butchered the town Doctor and his family. Then he ran. And disappeared. The posse that went out after him came back empty handed after a two month search. He popped up in a small Texas town three weeks after the posse had given up. He robbed the bank and shot the town Marshall. Another posse went out after him. They too came back empty handed.

It went on like that for months. The outlaw would suddenly come out of nowhere, shot up a town and disappear again. And just like his spree's started, suddenly, they stopped. It was almost two years before anyone ever heard of him again. Clemmins came riding out of the desert like he always did, loaded for bear and just as mean as one. The difference this time was that he was not alone. There were seven men with him. They rode into a small town that went by the name of Clarenceville. They razed it to the ground and killed half the people who lived there. That was nearly four years ago, and many towns have gone the way of Clarenceville in the face of Hardesty Clemmins and his gang.

Ole Jake McCullin was mulling these things over when the man rode into town. Ole Jake was nearly eighty years old. He had seen a lot of things during his years; and though he had never seen the man that rode past his house that day, he knew him. He knew his look. He knew his kind. Gun-fighters were all the same and they were all different. Each one of 'em were hard men with hard pasts. This one was no different in that respect. The old man could see it in the man's weathered face and his cool grey eyes.

Where the man differed from other gun-fighters was easy to see as well. He sat in the saddle like a ranch hand, one of those cowboys that rode the range, forked broncs and ate the dust of cattle trails. The gloves on his hands were made of the heavy leather those range riding boys usually wore, and not the special kid-skin ones the 'slingers used to protect their hands and keep 'em soft for a faster draw. He wasn't flashy, everything he wore was cut simply and economically. But still, Old Jake could tell the edge was still there.

The man got down at the Saloon, tied his horse, and walked inside. He stayed inside. No shots were fired and Jake decided the stranger wasn't on the prod for anyone. Just yet anyways. A man like that never stayed in one place too long before he went hunting some poor fool who made him mad. Its just the way it was.


End file.
